Uffda: Interjection signifying exhaustion, weariness, resignation, or overwhelm, especially used by those of Norwegian descent; see 'oofda'. (The Norwegian-American slang equivalent of the Yiddish term oy.) Black: Me

Correction, I have always had a bucket list, but I started to actually write it down.

Get my Masters

Start a Foundation/Company (Non-Profit)

See Mount McKinley

Compete a Bodybuilding Competition

See the Iditarod…

Las Vegas Hotel

I first started to write down the things that I have always wanted to do and completed.

Stay in a 4-star hotel

Eat at a top of the Line restaurant

See the MLK Memorial

Get a passport

Fly an airplane…

Then I realized that I have had a pretty good life with a ton of positive experiences.

Go to Hawaii

Watch a Cirque du Soleil show

Buy a tailored suit

Walk across the Edmund/Pettus Bridge

Go to an ethnic festival…

Chatterbox Pub. You play classic board/video games and eat good food. Let that sink in for a minute…

Experiences that many people live their entire life and never have the opportunity to do.

Get into a Hall of Fame

See MLK Church

Go on a Civil Rights Trip

Stand in the spot that MLK gave “I Have a Dream” Speech

Hike a Mountain…

But then, I realized that my list kept growing as I got older and had access to more was of funding my adventures.

Become a Black Belt

Have a structure/scholarship named after me

Own a BMW

Buy a Rolex

Become a Pokémon Master…

Olympic Training Center. Colorado Springs, Colorado

I also noticed that I have a shit-ton of things that I still want to do.

See the Great Wall of China

Go to Comic Con dressed up as a comic book character

Watch a Premier League Game

See the Gate of No Return

Drink Beer in Germany…

The older I get, the bigger the world becomes. The older I get; I have more responsibilities that derail me from checking some of these things off.

Walk across hot coals

Take the kids to Disneyland

Stay at the The Kakslauttanen Hotel

See Stonehenge

Go to Cuba and smoke a Cuban Cigar…

If you know the show Double Dare, then this is also on your bucket list.

Here is my dilemma: I grew up in an environment where it was worth a celebration if you, at the age of 25:

Were alive,

Had no previous or current convictions,

Did not have children, and

Graduated with a college degree.

Yes, it sounds funny. But those are serious aspirations for a group of Americans. The problem is, once you get to the age of 25 and have met and surpassed those goals, there is a ton of confusion on what to do next. I have been so narrow-sighted about accomplishing those goals (ones that many unfortunately do not meet and/or take for granted), that I failed to see just how big the world actually is.

So, why not now? I, now that I am older and have a career, should be able to do many of the things that I want?

Not so fast.

For starters, I have children and it is damn near impossible to find someone who will care for them while I am on an excursion. Side note: There is no way in the hell that my wife will let me take a “life goal” trip while she is at home with the kids; not happening. Also, it is too damn expensive and too damn painstaking ape-shit to take our entire family on a plane. So, for now, my plans to see the world and experience different things are on hold.

For the items that require a purchase (own a BMW, own a Rolex, become a blackbelt), the older the children are, the more those things seem like they will never happen. Really?! Buy a Rolex?! I spend that same amount of money paying for travel team, camps, concessions, and equipment.

It looks like I will have to put some of these ventures on the backburner until retirement.